1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to architectural renderings, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for applying a rendering style to a designated area of an architectural rendering.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) fields, computer aided design (CAD) drawings are often used to design blueprints, drawings, plans, etc. However, such CAD drawings may be complex, confusing, and fail to provide an end-user (e.g., a potential client) with a drawing or visualization of the “intent” of the architect or designer. Architectural renderings are designed to illustrate the “intent” of the designer or architect, as opposed to showing precise fidelity. In these renderings, the illustrator may want to highlight certain aspects of the layout, while de-emphasizing others. In the prior art, such highlighting was only possible with respect to an entire drawing or particular objects within a drawing. Further, there was no method for slowly transitioning from a highlighted area to a non-highlighted area. Such problems may be better understood with a description of prior art drawing software and methodologies.
CAD programs provide high fidelity drawings that fail to provide a visualization of the intent of the user. Architectural renderings may take a variety of forms or styles from hand-drawn renderings, to cartoon-like rendering, to ultra-realistic 3D rendering. In such renderings, designers may desire to illustrate certain regions differently than other regions/areas. For example, rendering effects may be different for different structures within a drawing, or with respect to building proximity. Further, lines that fade into the distance may appear to wiggle. However, to date, the different styles and techniques for a computer illustration have typically been applied to entire drawings, or selected objects within a drawing. In addition, when a style is applied, the new style becomes permanent for the entire drawing or selected object(s).
Theoretically, the prior art may indirectly provide different styles for object(s) or portions of a drawing. In this regard, multiple versions of each vector object in a drawing would be built and blended together. Such actions would require breaking each set of vector objects (that need to be styled a certain way) into separate vector drawing files, applying a style to the different vector drawings, converting the stylized different vector drawings into bitmaps, and blending the bitmap drawings together using pixel blending techniques. However, such prior art techniques require numerous steps including user interaction, are processor intensive, and inflexible.
In view of the above, what is needed is an efficient and easy to use system for designating multiple illustration styles in a computer illustration that includes a mechanism for applying the style.